The battle of Chickamauga severely troubled the Federal Army of the Cumberland.  Mainly due to a failure in command, the Army suffered a stiff rebuke on 20 September 1863 losing over 16,000 casualties.  Routed, the force made its way back to Chattanooga thanks to the steady defense shown on Horseshoe Ridge by men scrabbled together by General George Thomas.  Luckily, their antagonist, the Confederate Army of Tennessee suffered even more casualties in victory – over 18,000.  More problematic for the Confederate commander Braxton Bragg was a large loss of horses for an army already suffering mobility problems before that epic confrontation.

significance of missionary ridge

Here, on Missionary Ridge, the long, low ridge lying just to the east of Chattanooga, Ulysses S. Grant would achieve one of his most significant victories of the American Civil War.  Like most of his victories, this one came about not because of superior tactical or strategical skill on Grant’s part, but a combination of luck, superior power and an enemy general making a series of incompetent mistakes. 

Grant built his career on such circumstances.  His biggest victories to date, Fort Donelson, and Vicksburg, came against Confederate generals who time has not been kind with.  When Grant went to Virginia to prod George Meade into taking on Lee, he would not win because of his tactics, either.  Simple power and desire to use that overwhelming power to bring about the final victory.  Here, at Chattanooga, he made plans to overcome Bragg.  Those plans constantly underwent change.  He eventually won despite his plans.

Post Chickamauga

After Chickamauga, the two opposing forces settled into a semi-siege around the Federal fortifications in Chattanooga.  Confederate forces settled in atop Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain while sending out cavalry raids to impinge on the elongated and vulnerable Union supply line reaching back to Nashville.  Confederate forces on Lookout Mountain and in Lookout Valley to its immediate west closed off the main avenue for Federal supplies reaching Chattanooga via the railhead at Bridgeport, Alabama.  The lower seasonal river flows in the early fall on the Tennessee River made water transport unfeasible, while the direct ground route lay interdicted by the Rebels in Lookout Valley.

changes

Officials in Washington, D.C. looked for ways and men to correct the situation which had seemed so generous only a month before.  First off, Major General Ulysses S. Grant, fresh off his magnificent victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi, became the Union overall commander of all forces in the Western theaters of the war.  Moving to the scene at Chattanooga, he used the powers given him by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to dismiss William Rosecrans from the position of commander of the Army of the Cumberland in favor of Major General George Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga”.

Next came reinforcements sent by train from the quiescent Army of the Potomac in the form of the 11^th and 12^th Corps under the command of the former commander of that army, Major General Joseph Hooker.  Also, Grant ordered his erstwhile lieutenant, William Sherman, to gather troops from the 14^th and 17^th Corps and march east to Chattanooga.

Initial Plans

Grant hoped to attack Bragg’s positions on 7 November with a frontal attack on the Confederate positions at the base of Missionary Ridge.  Sherman’s Army of the Tennessee units were not on the scene yet so the attack would fall to the Army of the Cumberland and General Thomas.

Thomas demurred.  There simply were not enough horses and mules on the scene to pull the cannons needed to support such an attack.  The lack of mobility affected both sides after the grievous losses suffered at Chickamauga.  This was also the main reason Confederates were unable to vigorously follow up on their victory.  The attempt to bring about the final collapse of the Federals ensconced within the fortifications of Chattanooga failing for lack of animals, wagons, and pontoons with which to cross the Tennessee River upon.

consequences

The failure of Thomas to act went a long way in hardening relations between the Virginian and Grant.  Grant already did not think much of the ability of the Army of the Cumberland especially in lieu of their Chickamauga experience.  With Thomas opting out of his plans for 7 November, those feelings became truth to Grant.  He felt he needed to wait for Sherman and the Army of the Tennessee to get on the scene.  They would create the hammer he needed to crack open Bragg.

Sherman on the Scene

But Sherman’s force had to march almost 400 miles on roads that became worse the closer they came to Chattanooga, especially with the onset of bad weather.  Roads of mud slowed the men of Sherman.  They finally reached their goal on 22 November.  Even then, they were forced to leave one division – Peter Osterhaus’ – when a rising Tennessee River tore apart the pontoon bridge at Brown’s Ferry.

Grant hoped to launch Sherman into action on 23 November, but now Sherman decided he needed another day before he was ready.  Sherman’s presence on the north side of the Tennessee had not gone unnoticed by Bragg.  But he thought Sherman’s goal lay further north towards Knoxville to help Federal commander Ambrose Burnside in his attempt to maintain Union control over east Tennessee.  Those thoughts came easier especially since Bragg had earlier sent James Longstreet and his men of the Army of Northern Virginia in the same direction.

back up plans

Instead of a general engagement for 23 November, Grant settled for a “demonstration” against the forward skirmish outposts Bragg had set out about one mile from his main line at the bottom of Missionary Ridge.  Two reasons for the action – one was to make sure Bragg was not thinking about retreating.  The second was to convince himself the Army of the Cumberland was still capable of offensive action.  The action at Orchard Knob was a resounding success on both accounts.  The Federals overpowered the Confederate rifle pits.  At the same time, Bragg became concerned enough to stop siphoning his troops to the northeast.  He quickly cancelled the orders of two divisions, Patrick Cleburne, and Bushrod Johnson, to push up towards Longstreet, ordering them to return as quickly as possible.

24 November

Grant next hoped to have a general engagement on the 24^th.  Sherman was still the main player.  He would cross the Tennessee on a newly built pontoon bridge and roll down the Confederate right flank.  Thomas, in the meantime, would “demonstrate” to pin the Confederate center in place.  Hooker originally was only to play at his own demonstration in front of Lookout Mountain with his 11,000 men.  Osterhaus’ men came under his command boosting the total to over 20,000.  That was enough men for Grant to allow Hooker to do more than demonstrate if he felt capable.  For “Fighting Joe”, that was the same as giving a carte blanche.

main punch

Thomas would still attack the center of the Confederate line, but only after Sherman fully occupied the Confederates on the right flank.  And for the 24^th, that never happened.  His men crossed the river at dawn, but then Sherman dawdled digging in first.  By the afternoon, long after his attack should have started, his lead brigades found themselves on what they thought was their objective, Tunnel Hill at the north end of Missionary Ridge.  But they were on another hill to the north, Billy Goat Hill.  Giving up the opportunity to continue to capture the true objective against very few Confederate defenders as of yet in place, Sherman’s men dug in.

Hooker was completely successful on the Confederate left, forcing them to give up their positions on Lookout Mountain.  So, Grant had to rethink.

25 November – Sherman Fails

Grant had thought Sherman had successfully taken Tunnel Hill on the 24^th.  It was not until later he became aware the position had not fallen.  So, he reordered Sherman to attack as soon as there was enough light.  When the enemy became fully engaged, Thomas would let loose the Army of the Cumberland on the Confederate positions on Missionary Ridge.  Like the day before, Sherman was slow to get going.  His first attack against Tunnel Hill did not get going until 0900.  Sherman also sent too few men to take on a position that had been occupied and fortified during the night.  The Confederates also were rushing reinforcements from several sources while Sherman dawdled.

Piecemeal Federal attacks straight on against Tunnel Hill were all blunted by the Confederates throughout the morning and afternoon.  Sherman never used more than a third of his available force nor did he seek to try and flank the Rebel positions.  Feeling hard pressed, he sent off a message to Grant who was with Thomas on Orchard Knob with the simple request, “Where is Thomas?”

ConfederateS on Missionary Ridge

A lot of post battle criticism related to the Confederate positioning of men and cannons at the actual crest of Missionary Ridge instead of the military crest.  Military crest is defined as “an area either on the forward or reverse slope of a hill or ridge just below the topographical crest from which maximum observation and direct fire covering the slope down to the base of the hill or ridge can be obtained.”  From the military crest a main defensive position can provide a maximum ability to see and hit approaching attacking forces at the earliest opportunity. 

Bragg’s forces on top of Missionary Ridge did, however, set up on the actual crest.  This did allow an approaching force in many cases to approach unseen or, at least, not visible until well up the slopes.  The reason for this is the rapid fashion upon which the Confederates built up their positions atop Missionary Ridge.

defending from the top or the bottom?

Until 24 November, Bragg’s line ran along the base of the ridge.  Taken aback by the Federal attack on both Lookout Mountain and Sherman’s move across the Tennessee River threatening his right, Bragg ordered a regrouping and fortification along the crest of Missionary Ridge.  The crest of the ridge is not very wide.  Time needed to find the actual crests involved proved a limiting factor in differentiating between the actual versus military crest.  The artillery only recalled to the top of the ridge on the morning of 25 November.  Fortifications, gun emplacements all only became thrown up in the night and morning before the battle.  Some 96 cannons eventually defended from the top – out of 145 in total for the Army of Tennessee – but many only got into position late in the day.  The best dug trenches still found at the base of the ridge.

confederate triad on missionary ridge

Major General John C. Breckinridge, the former vice president of the US under Buchanan, served as Bragg’s commander for the Confederate right and center – Lieutenant General William Hardee held Tunnel Hill and the left.  Breckinridge decided he would split his forces with half defending the lines at the base of the ridge while the others held the top. 

The big difficulty here, command control became lost because of the steep intervening slope.  Some of the troops below thought their mission was to hold at all costs while others thought they were to delay any attacks before withdrawing to the defenses at the top of the hill.  About 6,000 to 7,000 men defended the base of the ridge and another 8,000 to 9,000 men along the crest.  The inconsistencies in expectations of the defending troops led to more chaos when the actual battle finally began.

BRAGG MAKES A STAND

Another critical factor in holding the line on Missionary Ridge was a simple lack of manpower.  While the Federals bulked up in Chattanooga through October and November, Bragg sent troops away.  First, Longstreet had been sent packing pushing off towards Knoxville.  Longstreet, as with many of the senior commanders within Bragg’s army, had never worked out as a good fit with regards to relationships with the commanding general.  He had left around 5 November, his position taken over by the division of Carter Stevenson who originally was supposed to help Longstreet return control over eastern Tennessee with. 

Just days before the battle, the two divisions of Bushrod Johnson and Patrick Cleburne began moving north to help Longstreet.  Bragg had noted Sherman’s men crossing to the north bank of the Tennessee at Brown’s Ferry.  Thinking Sherman was heading to eastern Tennessee, he sent the 11,000 men of the two divisions off to help Longstreet.  The demonstration on Orchard Knob, however, emphasized to Bragg his manpower weakness in the face of an enemy becoming more active with each day.  Without the two divisions, Bragg’s force only numbered about 35,000 men.  Those divisions were recalled.  Cleburne’s division returned in time to play a significant role atop Tunnel Hill on the 25^th. 

Should i stay or shoulD I go?

With the battle for Lookout Mountain lost, Bragg ordered the division of Stevenson off the summit bringing them all the way around to the Confederate right to help Cleburne defend Tunnel Hill.  Bragg also held a conference with his two corps commanders, Breckinridge and Hardee – neither of those two had fond feelings for their commander – asking whether the army should stay or retreat.  Hardee was in favor of retreat.  Breckinridge went the other way. 

He reasoned there was not enough time to pull the whole army back before daylight when Grant could possibly defeat a retreating force in detail.  He also though the position on Missionary Ridge to be a strong one, “if troops could not fight here, they could not fight anywhere”.  Bragg held that Breckinridge was drunk throughout the period of 23 to 27 November – he made similar suggestions after the Battle of Stones River – but drunk or not, Breckinridge was able to sway Bragg into remaining. 

FEDERAL PLANS

All was not rosy on the Union side either.  Grant still saw the main attack coming from Sherman at Tunnel Hill, rolling up the Confederate line from the right.  He added on a mission for Hooker’s force in light of their victory from the day before.  They were to first secure the mountain and then march to Rossville Gap and attack the Confederate position from the left.  Thomas was again to demonstrate against the Rebel center to pin as many troops as they could away from their flanks.

Thomas was not crazy about launching a frontal assault on the Confederate line on Missionary Ridge.  The Army of the Cumberland faced the situation with five of its nine divisions sent to help either Sherman or Hooker negating any superiority in manpower.  Grant ordered Thomas to occupy the rifle pits at the base of the ridge – the original main Confederate line – and hold there.  With all his divisions marching and countermarching.  One, the division of Absalom Baird had marched off to help Sherman.  Sherman then sent the division back to the center saying he did not need them.  They returned only minutes before the attack on Missionary Ridge began at 1530.

“where’s thomas?”

Four Federal divisions – 24,000 men – were included in the attack along a front covering more than two miles.  Facing them were three divisions – Major General Alexander P. Stewart, Brigadier General William B. Bate and Brigadier General J. Patton Anderson with about 15,000 men.  Bragg maintained a reserve brigade belonging to Brigadier General Alexander W. Reynolds – 1,000 men – near his headquarters.  Stewart, in particular, did not have enough men to man the whole ridge all the way down to Rossville Gap in the south.   Posting two Georgia regiments at Rossville, there was still a gap of almost a mile before the next brigade of Colonel Randall Gibson.  The brigade of Marcellus Stovall was inserted trying to cover ground as much as they could.

None of the four division commanders were told the object was to gain the top of the ridge.  They were only to capture the front positions at the base and hold.  The main goal was to relieve pressure on Sherman’s front, though the fighting on Tunnel Hill was winding down significantly by 1530.  There was still some confusion in some of those generals as what to do after they gained the first objectives.

“DEMONSTRATION” BECOMES THE MAIN EVENT

The six guns of Lyman Bridge’s artillery opened the battle firing a signal shot out individually from each cannon.  Soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland began marching out.  The Confederates had been told not to engage in a standing fight at the base of the ridge.  They fired off a volley at the advancing Federals and then “immediately broke and fled up the hill”.  The retreat up the steep slopes created confusion in the Confederate ranks while inspiring the oncoming Federals to occupy the Rebel positions at the base of the ridge.  Some of the Confederates had already withdrawn from the bottom of the ridge well before the Federals closed in on them. 

onward and upward

With the entire Confederate trench line at the bottom of Missionary Ridge quickly in Union hands, Confederate artillery opened up.  The trenches provided little protection from the plunging fire unleashed from above.  The safest option to the men seemed to continue up the hill rather than stay put.  Several brigadiers also decided on their own to continue the attack up slope – August Willich and John B. Turchin.  Division commanders concurred.  Thomas Wood accompanied the men in his second line while watching the men of the first line already heading uphill.  “’General, we can carry the ridge!’”  Wood asked “’Can you do it?’  They said, ‘We can.’ ‘Men go ahead!’”  Phil Sheridan knew his men were supposed to stop at the base, but new orders came in, “If in my judgement, the ridge could be taken, to do so.”  His three brigades launched forward.

Meanwhile on Orchard Knob

The forward surge of Union troops up Missionary Ridge was visible to the generals on Orchard Knob.  Different accounts have slight variations covering the conversations between the different officers.  Grant turned to Thomas asking who ordered the men to continue up the ridge?  Joseph Fullerton, an officer of Gordon Granger’s staff and later the first Chairman of the Commission creating the National Military Park here and at Chickamauga recounted later, “Thomas replied, in his usual slow, quiet manner, “I don’t know:  I did not.’  Then, addressing General Granger, he said, ‘did you order them up, Granger?’” – Granger commanded the 4^th Corps of which three of the four attacking divisions belonged to – “’ No.’ said General Granger, ‘they started up without orders.  When those fellows get started all hell can’t stop them.’”  Grant then “said something to the effect that somebody would suffer if it did not turn out well.”

Confederate Confusion

With so many Confederate soldiers manning the trench at the base of the ridge now suddenly trying to make their ways up the steep slopes with Federal troops at their heels, the confusion only got worse as everyone reached the hastily built fortifications atop.  Here, the argument for military versus actual crest came into play.  Several of the Confederate batteries were unable to drop fire onto the advancing Federals who were hidden from the Rebel guns.  Other batteries had to hold their fire in order to not blast away at their own retreating soldiers.  Panic seized the defenders as the Federal soldiers quickly overran the Confederate line atop the ridge.

Breckinridge was away from his position at the time of the attack as he was repositioning the brigade of Colonel James T. Holtzclaw’s brigade south towards his gap near the Rossville Gap where Hooker’s forces had appeared threatening.  Bragg, personally, strove to try and overcome what quickly became a critical situation in the center of his line.  Six places along the Missionary Ridge were penetrated by Federal soldiers at about the same time.  Bragg later recounted, “A panic which I had never before witnessed seemed to have seized upon the officers and men, and each seemed to be struggling for his personal safety, regardless of his duty or his character.”  He was able to personally rally one Floridian regiment but quickly was caught up in the rout as his men fled to the east.

AFTERMATH

Federal losses for all of the battles for Chattanooga came to 753 killed, 4,722 wounded and 349 missing – 5,824 altogether.  Sherman lost about 1,600 men on Tunnel Hill, Thomas lost 3,300 on both Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge and Hooker lost about 900 even including a bloody repulse at Ringgold Gap a few days after Missionary Ridge.  At the same time, Confederate casualties totaled 361 killed, 2,160 wounded and 4,146 missing – 6,667 in all.  Bragg probably lost more, possibly up to 9,000 men during the six-week campaign with two thirds becoming prisoners.  The Army of Tennessee dropped to only 36,064 men by 3 December also losing 40 cannons and over 6,000 small arms.

Bragg’s defeat allowed Grant to send Sherman north to reinforce Burnside at Knoxville.  By the time Sherman reached Knoxville, Longstreet had already been repulsed and was making his way home to Virginia leaving eastern Tennessee under firm Union control.  With winter now coming into full force, Grant thought to move excess troops out of Chattanooga and Knoxville with a campaign to Mobile, the interior of Alabama and an eventual outflanking of the Army of Tennessee in Georgia.  But Longstreet tarried in eastern Tennessee making Lincoln and Henry Halleck nervous.   So, that campaign did not come off.

rewards and demotions

Grant spent a few more weeks in Chattanooga as most of the army went into winter quarters.  Before he departed for Nashville 22 December, Grant paid a visit to the top of Lookout Mountain where he was photographed with members of his staff.  Thomas and Hooker also got photos taken of themselves on the mountain tops.

Bragg, with cries from all corners getting louder, finally was relieved of his command by President Jefferson Davis, replaced by Joseph J. Johnston, not one of Davis’s favorite commanders.  Grant went to Washington to take overall command of all Union forces on 2 March 1864.  Sherman was given command over the now three armies undertaking the spring offensive towards Atlanta – Army of the Cumberland, Army of the Tennessee, and Army of the Ohio – formerly Burnside’s forces now under the command of John Schofield.

VISITING THE RIDGE

Missionary Ridge stretches for about seven miles.  The are six – eight if you include the two on Tunnel Hill – separate “reservations” on which various monuments and tablets are included.  Many other tablets locating positions of various units of both sides can be found along the connecting road Crest Drive.  Crest Drive is narrow, and parking is a problem when you decide to get out a observe some of the sights.  You can probably use a GPS system though a Chattanooga street map can come in handy, too.  A map of all the monuments along the way can be found on the Historical Monument Database website.

There are warnings about wandering around some of the sites, especially up at the northern end around Tunnel Hill and on Orchard Knob.  The times I have visited, either in the morning or near sunset in the case of Orchard Knob, I have found few other visitors.  Be that as it may, there are still notices of possible car break and even robberies in broad daylight – again Tunnel Hill is always mentioned.

While it seems easier to visit Missionary Ridge from the south – and most people will come from that direction – here, I will hop in the car and drive south from the Tunnel Hill Sherman Reservation on the north end of Crest Drive.

CREST DRIVE TO THE DELONG RESERVATION

As you drive south on Crest Drive, you pass by several tablets and location markers for various Confederate brigades, divisions and artillery batteries.  Most of the units for the first mile did not factor in the Confederate defeat on the ridge.  These units came up to reinforce the right flank on Tunnel Hill.  Many of the battery tablets indicate their use in hitting at the flanks of Union troops trying to move up the west side of Tunnel Hill. 

It is not until you have gone around a mile south that you come upon the Moore’s Brigade tablet.  This brigade and the next one to the south – Jackson’s – is the beginning of Confederate units directly affected by the Federal charge on 25 November.  An interesting side note is the house just above the Moore’s Brigade tablet is the Seamour and Gertie Shavin House.  This is the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in Tennessee.

Just after crossing over the Wilcox Boulevard Tunnel, the monuments and tablets begin in earnest.  This is the area where the Federal division of Absalom Baird attacked the Rebel positions of Major General Benjamin Cheatham.  The bronze tablet of the 14^th Ohio led by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Kingsbury was the second regiment to the far left of Baird’s attack.  The farthest regiment to the left was that of the 38^th Ohio – Major Charles Greenwood.

BAIRD’S DIVISION

Phelps Monument – Van Derveer Brigade

 The former commander of the 38^th Ohio was Edward H. Phelps.  At Missionary Ridge he commanded the brigade which included the 38^th and 14^th Ohio along with the 10^th and 74^th Indiana and the 4^th, 10^th, and 18^th Kentucky regiments.  Phelps took over brigade command from Colonel John Croxton wounded at Chickamauga.

Pushing up the slopes of Missionary Ridge, Phelps ill at the time and being carried by four of his men, suffered a gunshot though he continued to lead his men.  A second gunshot proved fatal as he neared the crest of the ridge.  Phelps was the only Federal officer of brigade level or higher to die during the battle.  A mortuary cannon remembers the colonel.

ohio tablets

Next come the bronze tablets of Ohio regiments, part of the brigade of Colonel Ferdinand Van Derveer.  Van Derveer before the war had been a lawyer and a sheriff for Butler County in Ohio.  Earlier, he served in the 1^st Ohio Volunteers in Mexico reaching the rank of captain by the end of that war.  He organized the 35^th Ohio at the start of the Civil War, being promoted to brigade command in 1862.  He led a strong brigade here, forming the center of Baird’s division.  The 75^th, 87^th, and 101^st Indiana; 2^nd Minnesota and 9^th, 35^th, and 105^th Ohio all belonged to his brigade.

You find tablets on the west side of Crest Drive for most of the Ohio regiments.  The 35^th – Van Derveer’s original regiment – was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry V. Boynton here on 25 November.  Boynton eventually earned a Medal of Honor – 1893 – for his actions here where he led his men even after suffering severe wounds.   He was an important figure after the war in preserving the battlefields here at Chattanooga and Chickamauga and elsewhere.  The regiment has a proper regimental monument up on Horseshoe Ridge at Chickamauga.

TURCHIN’S BRIGADE

The Mad Cossack

 Next come the monuments of Brigadier John B. Turchin featuring six Ohio regiments and one lone Indiana regiment – 82^nd Indiana.  Each of the Ohio regiments have a tablet erected near where they crested the ridge.  Turchin stands as one of the more interesting figures within the Union army.  He served as an officer before the war in the Tsarist army of Russia.  Born Ivan Vasilyevich Turchaninov, his father a major – two of his uncles rose to lieutenant general ranks – in the Imperial Russian Army which opened doors for the young boy to eventually gain a commission serving in Poland, Hungary and in the Crimea – one of the men serving in his command was a young Leo Tolstoy.  It was in the Crimea where he met George McClellan who was a military observer for the American Army.

marxists before marx

But if he a transformed into a tool for Tsarist oppression, in his mind, he went in the opposite direction.  Absorbing radical ideas during his time in the army suppressing nationalist and liberal uprisings, he still moved up through the ranks becoming a captain in the Imperial Guards.  He married Nadezhda Lovov in 1856.  Nadezhda was the daughter of his commanding officer but also a closet liberal.  Taking their political views to heart, the Turchaninovs moved from Russia to western Europe before crossing the Atlantic for the opportunity to live in a real-life republic.

Eventually after a short while in New York and engineering school in Philadelphia, the couple moved to Chicago now with the new names of John and Nardine Turchin.  Here, John met up again with McClellan, then serving as Chief Engineer and Vice President of the Illinois Central Railroad.  Through McClellan, Turchin gained a job as a railroad engineer.   He also found time to join the nascent Republican party due to his disdain for aristocracy and slavery.  At some point in this time, he also met up with Abraham Lincoln.

Turchin back in the Ranks

With the onset of the Civil War, Turchin became the colonel of the 19^th Illinois.  His focus on drill and discipline made the 19^th one of the better regiments within the western Federal armies.  Turchin’s abilities were noted by his superiors and Major General Don Carlos Buell lifted him up to brigade command within the Army of the Ohio. 

troubles for turchin

Fighting Confederate guerillas in northern Alabama in the spring of 1862, frustration mounted.  Buell’s policy towards protecting the rights and property of Southerners – including their slaves – rubbed the soldiers and Turchin the wrong way in lieu of the constant wasting attacks by Rebel partisans.  After an incident in Athens, Alabama of Southern civilians preventing several blacks from rescuing a Federal soldier from being burnt alive in a destroyed train, Turchin said to his troops, “I close my eyes for two hours.   I see nothing.”

The ensuing “Rape of Athens” caused $55,000 in damage to businesses and some homes.  Democratic press nicknamed Turchin the “Mad Cossack”.  Buell called for a court-martial chaired by James Garfield, the future president.  Turchin argued his superiors were too lenient with Southern rebels “the more lenient we become to secessionists the bolder they become”.

At the same time, Buell took on John’s wife Nadine accusing her of taking her husband’s place as regimental commander during a brief illness.  Nadine accompanied her husband throughout the war on his campaigns.  A strong liberal with political views in line with Radical Republican thought, she was also an emotional writer and an eloquent speaker.  She gained an audience with President Lincoln to plead on behalf of her now-cashiered husband.  Lincoln not only reinstated the “Mad Cossack” but promoted him to brigadier general.

Turchin at Missionary Ridge

Here, on Missionary Ridge, Turchin’s men were among the first to gain the crest, led personally by Turchin up the slopes.  Three artillery positions were captured in the fight.  You will see some of the cannons representing those captured guns – Water’s Alabama Battery, a prime example.  Turchin would leave the army in October 1864 after suffering from heat stroke.  The couple returned to Illinois where he eventually died penniless at the Illinois Southern Hospital where he was committed suffering from severe dementia contributed to his previous heat stroke.

Turchin’s Ohioans

The first two Ohio regimental tablets – 89^th and 92^nd Ohio – are on the north side of the De Long Reservation – where you can park.  The 31^st and 36^th Ohio tablets are centered near the road on the De Long Reservation.  The 11^th Ohio is on the south end of the reservation.  The 17^th is about 50 yards further to the south.  Vandalism is always a problem in park open to the public.  The tablet for the 11^th Ohio was missing and has been replaced by a new one in recent years. 

ohioan medals of honor

Three members of the 11^th Ohio earned the Medal of Honor here on Missionary Ridge:  Sergeant James B. Bell, Corporal George Green and Private Hiram Reese Howard all members of Company H.  Green and Howard gained their medals in 1892 while Bell waited until 1907 to gain his.

Bell was first on the crest of the ridge planting the battle flag within the enemy line.  He was wounded five times in the battle.  Green and Howard leapt over the Confederate works on the crest and wrestled away the regimental flag of the 18^th Alabama.  James Walker of the 31^st Ohio also gained a Medal of Honor for carrying forward the regimental colors after two other bearers had gone down.  He then helped subdue and drive off the gunners of a Rebel battery and captured the flag of the 41^st Alabama.  He gained his medal on 25 November 1895.

CONFUSION AMONG THE MONUMENTS

With an Order of Battle and the HMDB map of tablets and monuments along Crest Drive, you can now find a bit of mixing among the brigades.  Turchin’s brigade claimed they captured the ground here at De Long Point and their regimental tablets are mixed about as mentioned.  Another monument, that of the 2^nd Minnesota, towers above the De Long Reservation.

Heinrich Spaeth came to Cincinnati as a seven-year-old boy with his family from Württemberg.  Enlisting in the 9^th Ohio – a German American regiment – he worked his way up to first lieutenant fighting until getting a discharge in June 1864 after the Battle of Resaca.  He gathered letters from fellow soldiers to refute the claims written in Archibald Gracie’s The Truth about Chickamauga which denigrated the role of Van Derveer’s brigade at Chickamauga.  Included among the letters he received was one from Colonel Judson Bishop who led the 2^nd Minnesota – part of Van Derveer’s brigade – on Missionary Ridge.  Bishop called the claims made by the veterans of Turchin’s brigade “preposterous”.  The 2^nd Minnesota served as skirmishers out in front of Van Der Veer’s brigade.  The local topography shows steep slopes with several ravines which served to confuse unit structures as they made their way up the slopes. 

2nd minnesota

Once on the crest, the Federals of Baird’s division tended to turn left trying to roll up the north flank of the Confederate positions on Missionary Ridge.  Enough evidence must have been presented to the postwar park commission to allow the 2^nd Minnesota to erect this towering monument in the midst of several tablet memorials for Turchin’s brigade.  Another note of confusion relates to a Confederate counterattack here against those Federals who first climbed out on top of the ridge.  The counterattack was subdued by the many Union soldiers scampering up the west slopes.  Confusion here atop Missionary Ridge mirrored confusion among units elsewhere, the result of the climb amidst the quick pursuit of those Confederates situated in the lower defenses as they tried to get up the hill in a hurry.

WOOD’S DIVISION

South of the tablet of the 17^th Ohio, you are entering the ground captured by the men of the division of Thomas Wood.  Wood, a graduate of the class of 1845 from West Point, served during the Mexican War cited for valor at the Battle of Buena Vista.  He served in several cavalry postings on the western frontier following that war before the onset of the Civil war.  Returning from an extended visit to Europe, Wood helped get several regiments ready for action from Indiana before being promoted to brigadier general of Indiana volunteers.

He commanded a division in the Army of the Ohio which became the Army of the Cumberland.  Wood served valorously under Buell and later Rosecrans.   But on the 20^{th of} September 1863 at Chickamauga, he received an order to vacate his position to move north to fill in a supposed hole in the Federal line.  Wood knew there was no hole – the only hole in the Federal line would occur if he moved his division – but having been rebuked twice earlier by Rosecrans for not following orders quickly, he decided to follow the order knowing it was issued in error.  Through the hole where his division was, Longstreet’s attack moved through to turn the tide in the battle.  Rosecrans lost his position after Chickamauga, but Wood kept his.  Here, at Missionary Ridge, he regained a bit of his credibility lost a short time ago.

tablets galore

The tablets are coming fast and furious now as we drive south on Crest Drive.  Wood’s three brigades from north to south included Samuel Beatty, August Willich, and William Hazen, all longtime veterans of the Army of the Cumberland.

Beatty’s brigade

Samuel Beatty was raised in Stark County, Ohio – the county seat is Canton.  He served as a lieutenant in the 3^rd Ohio during the Mexican War and later as sheriff of Stark County.  Beatty was elected as the first colonel of the 19^th Ohio which he led through an assortment of battles from western Virginia and the battles of the Army of the Ohio/Cumberland.  At Chickamauga, his brigade had a rough go.  His men, a part then of the division of Horatio Van Cleve – West Point 1831 – were an early part of the moves to reinforce the left of Thomas’ positions along what is known as Battlefield Road.  Part of his brigade went there and the other ended up on Snodgrass Hill stalling the victorious Confederates of Longstreet from sweeping the whole Union army off the board.

Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio regiments made up Beatty’s brigade.  Ohio tablets are the only reminders, so the first regimental tablet you see is the one for the 59^th Ohio.  It stands directly in front of a stone house with a great view west towards Lookout Mountain.  Both the 59^th and the 13^th Ohio had been parts of the brigade of Colonel George Dick at Chickamauga.  Dick’s brigade suffered even worse than Sam Beatty’s first on the 19^th in the woods to the east of Brotherton Field where both regiments erected monuments.  On the monument of the 13^th is the dramatic scene of Lieutenant Colonel Elhannon Mast shot off his horse in the middle of the forest.  He is buried in the National Cemetery here in Chattanooga.

beatty’s ohioans

The 13^th Ohio tablet is located on the south side of the little Turchin Reservation mostly taken up by the two Napoleon cannons marking the position of Dent’s Alabama Battery.  That battery lost five of six cannons and 35 horses during the battle.  On the north side of the little reservation, a tablet notes the efforts of Beatty’s brigade here on Missionary Ridge.  The question remains why is the little reservation known as the “Turchin Reservation” when his brigade was involved further to the north?

Willich’s Brigade

Monuments and tablets next belong to the regiments of August Willich’s brigade.  Johann August Ernst von Willich was born in East Prussia.  His father was a captain in the hussars, dying when August was only three.  He went to Potsdam to military school, serving in the Prussian army for 19 years, reaching the rank of captain.  Republican leanings led him to resign his commission, but the government refused to accept it sending him to a posting in Pomerania.  His refusal to comply led to a court-martial.  Finally, it was decided to just get rid of him and his resignation was accepted in 1847.

Willich then joined forces with the German revolutionaries commanding a corps which ended badly.  Fleeing through Switzerland and England, he ended up in America in 1853.  Similar to Turchin, Willich was more of a democratic communist, finding Karl Marx – whom he met in England – too conservative.  He worked at several jobs, but the Civil War was just what he needed.  “I fought for liberty in the old country.  I fight for liberty in this country.”  He helped organize the 9^th Ohio – Die Neuner (the Niners) – resigning to become the colonel of the 32^nd Indiana – another German American unit.  He was an audacious leader in many battles before here.  After the war, Willich returned to Germany to offer his services during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, but the Germans figured they had all of the commanders they needed.

willich’s men atop missionary ridge

His brigade here was an amalgamation of his previous brigade before Chickamauga – 89^th Illinois, 32^nd Indiana, 15^th and 49^th Ohio – with the brigade of Hans Heg, who died at Chickamauga – 25^th and 35^th Illinois, 8^th Kansas and 15^th Wisconsin.

Again, the tablets for individual regiments only include those from Ohio, Illinois, with a few other States throwing in a monument here and there.  But Willich’s brigade contained several regiments beyond Ohio and Illinois and in the case of his brigade  all of the various regiments have erected tablets running from the Turchin Reservation to just south of Shallowford Road:  35^th Illinois, 19^th Ohio, 25^th Illinois, 8^th Kansas, 89^th Illinois, 49^th Ohio, 15^th Wisconsin – stone marker, 15^th Ohio, and the 32^nd Indiana in that order of appearance from north to south along Crest Road.

32nd indiana

Illinois regimental monuments along Crest Road tend to be miniature versions of their normal size, rectangular monuments all the same in basic shape, only differing with the inscriptions.  Ohio sticks with the bronze tablets.  The 32^nd Indiana – Willich’s old regiment – gets a bronze tablet like Ohio.  At Chickamauga, the 32^nd has a monument like all the rest of the regiments in Willich’s brigade. 

Additional note is men of the 32^nd Indiana also erected the first monument of the Civil War atop the burial ground for the thirteen men of the regiment who fell staving off an attack by Confederate cavalry at Rowlett’s Station, Kentucky in late 1861.  Private August Bloedner obtained a large outcrop of limestone from a nearby farm field carving an account of the battle and the names of those with birthdates and birth homes of those killed.  With the postwar concentration of Union dead to the national cemeteries, the monument and dead of the 32^nd were all removed to the Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville.  A replica of the original sits in the cemetery around those of the 32^nd dead.  The original is preserved inside the lobby of the Frazier History Museum in Louisville.

8th kansas

The only large monument is that of the 8^th Kansas commanded by a future governor of the State, Colonel John Martin.  A Union soldier bearing the flag stands atop the twenty-foot-high monument with a two-step pedestal and large bronze plaque detailing the efforts of the regiment on the Ridge here.  The monument rises out of the little trees along the road on the west.

william hazen

William Hazen grew up in Hiram, Ohio, one of his childhood friends was James Garfield, a future president.  Graduating from West Point in 1855, he served as a young officer in the Pacific Northwest and Texas.  Promoted to captain in the Regular Army, he switched over to become the colonel of the 41^st Ohio at the end of October 1861.  Soon, Hazen was elevated to brigade command in the Army of the Ohio.  From Shiloh to Missionary Ridge he led his brigade, most memorably defending the Round Forest at Stones River where he was wounded in the shoulder.  Promoted to brigadier general, he oversaw the erection of a monument remembering those men who fell – the monument is considered the oldest Civil War monument still at its original site.

His men fought at Chickamauga as part of the 21^st Corps.  That corps was disbanded, and his group became part of the 4^th Corps.  They had already spearheaded the Federal movement across the Tennessee River reopening a more direct supply line at Brown’s Ferry between the rail head and Chattanooga.  Hazen would go on to division command in the 15^th Corps and eventually command of that corps near the end of the war.  Postwar, he went on to a long career on the western frontier, also spending time as an observer in Europe during the Frano-Prussian War.  His years were punctuated by squabbles with other officers and superiors.  A former staff officer of Hazen’s, Ambrose Bierce described Hazen as the “best hated man I ever knew.”

Hazen’s Brigade

For Hazen’s regiments, we are back to recognizing only his Ohioans – north to south:  6^th, 1^st, 93^rd,41^st and 124^th.  His other regiments are listed on the brigade tablet just south of the 6^th Ohio:  6^th Indiana, 5^th, 6^th and 23^rd Kentucky.

OHIO RESERVATION

ohio state monument

Just past the tablet of the 124^th Ohio is the Ohio Reservation.  Here, Ohio erected a forty-five-foot-tall monument overlooking Chattanooga surrounded by statues of soldiers of various arms of the army – infantry, artillery, cavalry, and a drummer boy.  The monument was originally erected in 1904 and restored in 2014.  The State later erected another State monument on Lookout Hill near the Cravens House in 1917. 

A tablet to the right front of the monument talks about Ohio’s presence here in Chattanooga with 31% of the total Union casualties of the battles here being Ohioans.  On the left front, another tablet talks of Ohio at Chickamauga with another 31.8% of the total casualties being from Ohio.  In the middle, another tablet discussed each of the various Ohio artillery units involved in the area and where they operated.  The two cannons in front represent the four 12-pound Napoleons and two James rifled cannons of the 5^th Company Battalion Washington Battery.  Without infantry support, four of the guns were plunged down the slopes in front while the other two were captured.  The battery, originally from New Orleans, had been involved in many battles from Shiloh on.

north side

On either side of the reservation, north and south, there are a row of bronze tablets dedicated to various Ohio regiments that did not fight up here on the Ridge.  The 1^st, 3^rd, a battalion of the 4^th and the 10^th Ohio Cavalry were off destroying rail lines connecting Longstreet’s forces with Bragg’s near Cleveland, Tennessee.  All of the 1^st, 3^rd, and 4^th Ohio Cavalry all erected monuments at Chickamauga.

The 1^st Ohio Sharpshooters – Barber’s Sharpshooters – served with the headquarters of General George Thomas.  There is a monument to these men also at Chickamauga near the Wilder Tower where they served a similar function with General Rosecrans.  Their commander, Captain Gershom Morse Barber, went on to command the 197^th Ohio near the end of the war, becoming a judge in Cleveland afterwards.

The 18^th Ohio, attached to the Engineer Brigade, was involved in building during the campaign.  The 10^th Ohio was also attached to Thomas’ headquarters employed as guards and escorts to supply trains and other duties as demanded.  Next, is the tablet of the 21^st Ohio which served in reserve for John Starkweather’s brigade.  They had been roughly handled at the end of Chickamauga when most of the regiment was captured when no one told them the rest of the men atop Horseshoe Ridge were retreating.  

North side infantry

The tablet of the 74^th Ohio is next. Here, they came forward to the base of the ridge as the brigade crested the summit.  Their tablet erroneously listed the commander as Major Michael H. Locher who commanded the 79^th Pennsylvania, also a regiment in Starkweather’s brigade.  Here in Chattanooga, the 74^th Ohio was actually led by Major Joseph Fisher, who led the regiment as a captain at Chickamauga.  All these regiments have monuments at Chickamauga.

The last tablet on the north side remembers the 52^nd Ohio which stayed back on the 24^th covering the crossing of the Tennessee River by Sherman’s forces.  They were in reserve and were not used by Sherman on the 25^th.  They, too, have a monument at Chickamauga.

south side

On the south side of the reservation, next to a grand house, there are five tablets.  From the right – farthest away from Crest Road – there is the tablet for the 3^rd Ohio.  They spent the battle guarding the Federal supply line at Kelly’s Ferry on the west side of Racoon Mountain.  Much of the regiment had been captured in April 1863, part of a raid by Abel Streight into northern Alabama.  Next is the tablet for the 98^th Ohio.  This regiment, like the 52^nd Ohio, covered Sherman’s crossing, staying in reserve on 25 November.  The same goes for the next three tablets – the 98^th, 108^th, 113^th, and the 121^st – all in reserve with Sherman.  Chickamauga holds monuments for the 98^th, 113^th and the 121^st.

Cannon House

We are entering the area of tablets and monuments for the brigade of Brigadier General George Wagner the first of Phil Sheridan’s divisional brigades.  But first, one of the most unique monuments is found at the Cannon House where two cannons are placed pointing at a large two-story house.  Here is where the four 12-pound howitzers of Mebane’s Tennessee fought from originally.  They held the federals at bay for awhile until almost surrounded they were forced to retreat.

Lieutenant John W. Mebane took command of this battery after Stones River where he was wounded and the battery commander, Captain E. E. Wright was killed.  Promoted to captain, Mebane’s Battery did not figure greatly in the battle at Chickamauga firing only 75 rounds.  Here at Missionary Ridge, they used almost all of their ammunition shooting off 543 rounds.  He was able to get the guns off the hill.  Mebane was shot in the head the following year at Kennesaw Mountain.  His brother William, a captain with the 13^th Tennessee, was captured eight days later, also at Kennesaw Mountain.

Wagner’s Brigade

George D. Wagner was a farmer and politician from Indiana before the war.  Tabbed as the colonel of the 15^th Indiana, he was soon in charge of a brigade by the time of Shiloh.  Perryville, Stones River came next.  He missed out on Chickamauga with his brigade holding the fort at Chattanooga while the rest of the Army of the Cumberland was out in the field.  His brigade incurred heavy losses as they made their way up the steep slopes of Missionary Ridge.  Later in the war, his brigade suffered at Kennesaw Mountain, though he would earn promotion to division command during the Franklin-Nashville campaign.  His career ended after the Battle of Franklin where his failure to follow orders caused momentary problems for the Federals only relieved with reinforcements.

.We have also moved south beyond Cleburne’s Division into ground defended by the men of John Breckinridge’s division, commanded here by Brigadier General William Bate.  This tablet leads on to the 100^th Illinois, the only Illinois regiment within the brigade.  Most of the regiments hailed from Indiana – 15^th, 40^th, 51^st, 57^th and 58^th.  But a little further along are the tablets of the two Ohio regiments – the 26^th and 97^th Ohio – located on either side of the gap in Missionary Ridge dug out for Interstate 24.  Both of these regiments pushed the Confederates off the ridge to the east.  A tablet near the Wagner’s Brigade tablet shows the area defended by Finlay’s Floridian Brigade.

medal of honors earned in the brigade

There were two Medals of Honor eventually awarded to men from the 15^th Indiana.  George L. Banks and Thomas Graham.  Banks, a sergeant, served as color bearer leading, even though wounded, his men up the slopes where he suffered another wound.  His flag was the first of Wagner’s regiments to be planted atop the crest.  He received his medal in 1891.  Second Lieutenant Graham took the colors from a wounded color bearer and carried them onto the crest.  His award came in 1897.

Alexander W. Reynolds, West Point 1833 graduate, had already surrendered once before at Vicksburg.  Paroled, he was ready for another stab at action.  His brigade was placed by Breckinridge at the base of Missionary Ridge.  Bragg ordered the men to fall back on the crest just as the Federal attack began encouraged the attackers and demoralizing those in gray above.  The men, winded by the time they got up the slopes, gave only brief resistance before retreating.  Reynolds went on after the war to serve in the Egyptian army.

The Reynold’s tablet stands next to the 97^th Ohio and a tablet for Massenburg’s Georgia Battery.  Captain Thomas Massenburg commanded two 12-pound Napoleons and two 10-pound Parrott rifled cannons.  The battery lost all of their guns trying to move to the north to staunch a Federal breakthrough near Bird’s Mill Road.

BRAGG RESERVATION

Illinois state monument

Coming up the hill from the bridge over Interstate 24 we come to the center of monuments and tablets at the Bragg Reservation.  The 80-foot-high Illinois State Monument dominates here.  Erected in 1899 and restored in 1988, there are four bronze soldiers at the base – 21-foot square – with a bronze figure of Peace on the top.  The various Illinois regiments and their losses are inscribed on plaques set onto the base.  The two Union brigades figuring in the main fighting here at the site of Braxton Bragg’s headquarters atop Missionary Ridge were Harker’s and Sherman (Francis, unrelated to William T.).  Five of the regiments of Harker’s command hailed from Illinois while there were another five in Sherman’s.  Twenty Illinois regiments in total were involved in the attack on Missionary Ridge.

regiments of harker and wagner intermixed

All of Harker’s regiments are remembered here with a small monument or a tablet in the case of the Ohioans.  Only the regiment of the 6^th Kentucky does not figure in.  On the north side of the reservation are a trio of Ohio regiments with the 64^th, 65^th and 125^th mixed with the 22^nd Illinois and one for Havis’ Georgia Battery. 

Just south of these tablets are the monuments to the 51^st Illinois and the 97^th Ohio.  In the case of the latter, the 97^th get a full monument and a tablet.  They formed the right of Wagner’s brigade occupying the crest just to the north of the Bragg headquarters around where the tablet is located next to the Crest Road bridge over Interstate 24.  Being a part of Wagner’s brigade, they missed out on the battle of Chickamauga, the perfect place for their place in the granite forest.  They were front and center in the action here on Missionary Ridge, however.  So, the regimental monument stands here on the north rim of the Bragg Reservation.

SHERIDAN’S DIVISION

Harker’s Brigade

In a row in front of the guns lined up on the west side of the Illinois State Monument are several miniature Illinois blocks reflecting upon the preponderance of Illinois regiments in action here.  From the north going south from the block of the 51^st Illinois, there are blocks for the 79^th, 27^th, 42^nd, and 44^th Illinois regiments.  These regiments, along with the 64^th, 65^th and 125^th Ohio, all belonged to the brigade of Colonel Charles Harker.  There are tablets describing set in front of the regimental markers describing the actions of both the brigade and another for Sheridan’s Division as a whole – Wagner, Harker, and Francis T. Sherman commanded the three brigades.

charles harker

Harker was a young graduate of West Point – Class of 1858 – who served most of his prewar time in the Pacific Northwest.  Reassigned to help train new volunteers in Ohio at the war’s onset, he became the colonel of the 65^th Ohio fighting at Shiloh, the Siege of Corinth before taking over brigade command replacing James Garfield.  Perryville, Stones River and Chickamauga all followed – all of the regiments of Harker’s command have erected regimental monuments at Chickamauga.  Only the 3^rd Kentucky is left out.  Harker died the following year at Kennesaw Mountain, shot off his horse at the young age of 26.

Missouri state monument

A large rectangular monument is set next to the parking area on the south end of the reservation.  This monument notes, on the east side, the 2^nd and 15^th Missouri USA reached this area in the assault on Missionary Ridge, they were a part of Francis Sherman’s brigade whose monuments are seen just to the south of the reservation. 

On the west side of the monument, the 6^th, 8^th, 20^th, and 26^th regiments are remembered for their actions with Sherman’s forces on Tunnel Hill.  Further to the south, closer to Rossville Gap, another Missouri monument stands in honor of other Show-Me regiments.

To the east of the Illinois regimental lineup are tablets noting the casualties suffered by both sides during the Chattanooga campaign and a marker for Bragg’s headquarters here atop Missionary Ridge.  Bragg ended up carried away by his routed men similar to what happened to William Rosecrans on the Federal side at Chickamauga.  The defeat here spelled the end of Bragg’s active command days in the armies of the Confederacy.

cobb’s kentucky battery

Robert H. Cobb enlisted into what he thought was a cavalry regiment from Kentucky. That unit transformed into an artillery battery, one which he led throughout the war. He would end the war as a major, but not before leading his battery through some battles where his men suffered greatly, especially on 2 January 1863 at Stones River where the Orphan Brigade from Kentucky lost over 25% of its men in just over forty minutes. Here, all four guns were overrun by the Federals at Missionary Ridge. At the request of General Bragg whose headquarters was close at hand, the four guns were named: Lady Breckinridge, Lady Buckner, Lady Gracie and Lady Lyon.

Missourian regimental markers

On the eastern fringe of the reservation, across the little street from the Bragg Point Condominiums – $1.3 million per each according to Redfin – is a row of small markers noting various US Missouri regiments – from the north to south:  3^rd, 12^th, 17^th, 29^th, 31^st and 32^nd.  There is also a small monument for the 13^th Illinois as well as tablets for Brigadier General Peter Osterhaus’ division and Brigadier General Charles Woods brigade to which all these regiments belonged. 

There is also a tablet describing the actions of Colonel James Williamson’s all-Iowa brigade another of Osterhaus’.  Osterhaus’ men were part of Joseph Hooker’s three division sweep north from Rossville Gap.  Osterhaus’ men – Williamson on the left and Woods on the right – combed the east side of the ridge as they marched north adding to the Confederate rout.  The division of Brigadier General Charles Cruft moved up the center of the ridge while Brigadier General John Geary’s command swept the west side of the ridge.

missouri markers on the east lawn

Another group of tablets are included at the southwestern corner of the reservation.  One notes the Missionary Ridge school sited where the Bragg Point Condominiums are today – the school burned down in 1992.  There is a tablet noting Dawson’s Georgia Battery’s presence with four guns.  Like many of the Confederate defenses here atop the ridge, the battery only came into position too late to build up any defensive emplacements to fire out from.  They fired out for awhile before Harker’s men started approaching from the right flank to go along with the Federals in front getting very close.  The battery withdrew, losing no guns.

Medal of Honor Trail

Next to the tablet for the Missionary School are three tablets noting those Union soldiers who eventually earned Medals of Honor for their actions here.  Medals of Honor were much more political before World War 1.  By 1916, 2,625 Medals of Honor had been awarded, including several to civilians.  New criteria for the medal was imposed by Congress with the new standard imposed retroactively.  For example, 864 medals were given to the 27^th Maine Regiment in 1863.  With Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania in the late spring, the Federal army needed to move north to intercept Lee.  That left Washington, D.C. with only a skeleton force.  The enlistment period for the 27^th was up. 

To entice the men to stay, President Lincoln authorized any member who extended his enlistment to cover the capital in the meantime to be awarded the new medal.  309 men volunteered while the rest returned to Maine.  Those staying, ended only up only staying for four days as the Gettysburg Campaign ended.  Due to a clerical error, the names of those who stayed got lost and the War Department ended up giving the medal to the entire regiment whether they had stayed or not.

disenrollment from honor

Those medals were stricken from the roll of the Medal of Honor as were the four officers and 25 enlisted men who served as funeral guards for Lincoln after he was assassinated.  Other recipients simply were either ineligible – Private Robert Storr of New York was a British citizen; Private John Lynch of Indiana delivered dispatches, his job; Colonel Asa Gardiner got a medal after he wrote a letter asking for one as a souvenir.  

There were also several civilians who had been awarded the medal including “Buffalo” Bill Cody and several surgeons including Dr. Mary Walker – she treated soldiers in Washington and at Manassas.  Major General Leonard Wood got a medal for work as a civilian surgeon in Arizona during the Apache Wars before he gained a commission in the Army.  His was one of the 910 medals not rescinded, being one of the highest-ranking officers in the Army in 1916.

Twenty soldiers involved in the massacre at Wounded Knee earned the medal but were not disenrolled until an act of Congress in 2019.  And on the other hand, others, like Bill Cody and his fellow scouts were restored by Congress in 1989.  Mary Walker’s name was restored in 1977, though she never returned her original medal wearing it for the rest of her life.

SHERMAN’S BRIGADE

Heading south out from the Bragg Reservation on Crest Road are several monuments belonging to the brigade of Francis Trowbridge Sherman.  His father was involved in the politics of Chicago including two terms as mayor.  Francis – no relation to William T. – served in the 56^th Illinois and the 12 Illinois Cavalry before becoming the colonel of the 88^th Illinois – Second Board of Trade Regiment.  He led the regiment at Perryville and Stones River but was on home leave at the time of Chickamauga where the regiment was roughly handled during Longstreet’s assault on 20 September.

Sherman became a brigade commander in the shake up following Chickamauga.  He would continue to lead the brigade in the early phases of the Atlanta campaign fighting at Rocky Face Ridge and Resaca.  He became the chief of staff then for the 4^th Corps until he was captured near Atlanta on 7 July 1864.  Three months later, he was exchanged spending the rest of the war in the east as an assistant inspector general for the Cavalry Corps during the Appomattox campaign.  He would gain his brigadier general star which he – like many other officers on both sides – yearned for, just six months before mustering out at the beginning of 1866.  Sherman left behind a very fascinating view of the war made into a book by C. Knight Aldrich Quest for a Star:  The Civil War Letters and Diary of Colonel Francis T. Sherman of the 88^th Illinois.

MacArthur’s Badgers

Sherman’s Illinoisans

Next in line is the 88^th Illinois.  This regiment Sherman led from its inception through Stones River before gaining a brigade command.  Brigaded with the 36^th Illinois and the 24^th Wisconsin with the 21^st Michigan in reserve, the brigade fought for ninety minutes as Sheridan’s three brigades held seven Confederate brigades at bay 31 December 1862 at Stones River giving General Rosecrans time to cobble together enough troops to keep the Confederates from cutting the army off from Nashville. 

At Chickamauga, Sherman was back in Illinois on leave and the regiment was led by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Chadbourne.  Along with the rest of Sheridan’s division on 20 September 1863, they were driven off the field as they were caught marching north to support Thomas when Longstreet’s assault crashed through their ranks.  The experience was a bit too much for Chadbourne as he resigned shortly after the battle on 15 October.  Here at Missionary Ridge, they were led by Lieutenant Colonel George W. Chandler.  He continued to lead the regiment until his death at Kennesaw Mountain 27 June 1864.

74th illinois and adam’s brigade

A tablet next explains the action of Sherman’s brigade on Missionary Ridge.  Then comes the little monument of the 74^th Illinois.  They were brought in from Colonel Sidney Post’s brigade after Chickamauga. Given a new flag by the ladies of Rockford, Illinois eleven days before, four color bearers went down carrying the colors up the slopes here.  The flag planted on the crest with fifteen bullet holes piercing it.

Defending here was the brigade Adams’ brigade led here by Colonel Randall Lee Gibson.  Comprised of all Louisiana regiments, the space needed to be defended forced the brigade to form one long thinned line.  Beset on the front by the brigades of Harker and Sherman and in the rear by Osterhaus’ division, the brigade came apart fairly quickly.

STOUGHTON AND CARLIN BRIGADES

We now come into the grounds fought by the brigades of Colonel William L. Stoughton and Brigadier General William Carlin, brigades from Brigadier General Richard Johnson’s division, the southernmost Federal division involved in the direct attack up Missionary Ridge.

Stoughton took over the command of Johnson’s second brigade on this day.  He was a prewar politician from Michigan.  He started as the colonel of the 11^th Michigan.  Ill health caused his resignation the next year in August.  After the war Stoughton returned to become the Attorney General for Michigan before serving two terms in Congress.

19th illinois

The first monument is that of the 19^th Illinois.  There is a small Illinois block on the west side of Crest Road while a large regimental monument stands next to stairs leading up to a private residence on the opposite side of the street.  This regiment lost four color bearers before planting their flag on the Ridge like what happened with the 74^th Illinois. Both regiments – and others – claimed to crest Missionary Ridge first.

There is a bronze tablet for the 69^th Ohio next followed by a small stone marker for the 11^th Michigan.  Major Benjamin G. Bennett took over command of the 11^th after Stoughton went to command the brigade.  Bennett died leading his men up the slopes just below the marker.

Past the tablet for Stoughton’s brigade, there are three tablets remembering the work of the US Regular infantry units attached to the Army of the Cumberland – first for the 16^th/19^th US followed by a tablet for the 18^th US and finally one for the 15^th US.

Carlin

Then, after passing a tablet for Johnson’s Division, come tablets and monuments to the regiments of Carlin’s brigade.  William Carlin – West Point 1850 – became the colonel of the 38^th Illinois when it was raised 5 August 1861.  By early spring 1862, Carlin was leading a brigade just after Shiloh.  That brigade fell into the orbit of the Army of the Ohio/Army of the Cumberland fighting through the battles of Perryville through to Chickamauga.   He would end the war as a divisional commander marching to the Sea and on to the Carolinas with Sherman.  Postwar, Carlin stayed in the army retiring only in 1893 after 43 years.  He bought a ranch in Montana, living until 1903.

104th illinois

The first monument is the little block of the 104^th Illinois.  They were led by Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Hapeman.  Hapeman would go on to earn a Medal of Honor – 1898 – for his actions in regrouping his men at the Battle of Peachtree Creek 20 July 1864.  He and his regiment were captured at the 7 December 1862 Battle of Hartsville when two regiments of their brigade fled at first sounds of combat.  The rest of the brigade soon surrounded by men of Colonel John Hunt Morgan surrendered.  The men were paroled three days later near Murfreesboro, but Hapeman and his major were sent to Atlanta and then to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia not gaining exchange until 22 April 1863.

Twenty yards farther is a tablet remembering the next regiment in line, the 88^th Indiana.  From here on south, those of the National Battlefield Park erected bronze tablets in memory of other regiments beyond those of Ohio and Illinois.  The tablets are much simpler inscribed with the name of the regiment, their commander, and the date of action.

otho strahl

Brigadier Otho Strahl defended in this area.  His men were stretched too thin with too much ground to cover, especially with half of the men beginning the fight in the rifle pits at the base of the ridge.  Strahl led his all-Tennessee brigade from Chickamauga to Atlanta dying 30 November 1864 during the Battle of Franklin leading his men on foot hit by three bullets.

more indianans

Another 20 yards and the tablet of the 42^nd Indiana appears.  They were led by Lieutenant Colonel William T. B. McIntire who began the war enlisted as a private.  McIntire spent the last ten years of his life in Portland, Oregon and lies in the GAR Cemetery there.  The tablet of the 94^th Ohio elaborates a little more – being a State-financed monument – about the actions of this regiment.  They were joined in their fight by the men of Hooker pushing north from Rossville Gap.  A tablet to Carlin’s Brigade stands nearby.  Forty yards on is the tablet for the 33^rd Ohio and another forty is the simple tablet of the 38^th Indiana.

38th indiana

The original commander of the 38^th Indiana, Benjamin Franklin Scribner, a brigade commander after Perryville, served as Carlin’s second-in-command here at Missionary Ridge.  His successor in the 38^th was Lieutenant Colonel Daniel F. Griffin who worked as a civil engineer before the war.   During the Atlanta campaign, his health broke down and he was forced to resign dying back home in New Albany, Indiana 13 February 1865.

one of the fighting mccook’s

Last in the line of Carlin’s regiments, covering the right flank of Johnson’s division, stands the tablet of the 2^nd Ohio.  Commanded by Colonel Anson McCook, one of the five brothers of the McCook family of Steubenville, Ohio.  After a sojourn in California and Nevada, he returned to take up law in 1859.  With the war, he enlisted in the three-month version of the 2^nd Ohio seeing combat as a captain at First Manassas. 

Rejoining the three-year version of the 2^nd Ohio as a major, he became colonel after Stones River.  He went on to brigade command during the Atlanta campaign mustering out with his regiment in late 1864.  Given command of the 194^th Ohio – a one-year regiment – he led these men in the Shenandoah under Sheridan gaining a brevet brigadier general promotion for his service.  Back to the law, now in New York City after the war – also establishing a law journal, Anson served three terms in Congress representing lower Manhattan.  He then served for ten years as Senator.

 Chickamauga was hard on Carlin’s command with the 2^nd Ohio being no different losing 183 men – 36 taken prisoner later dying at Andersonville prison camp in Georgia.  All of the regiments of Carlin and Stoughton have monuments erected on the fields of Chickamauga.

HOOKER’S RIGHT SWING

There is a gap in the tablets and monuments now along Crest Road of about a half mile before coming to those of John Geary’s division.  Joseph Hooker, former commander of the Army of the Potomac, led three divisions on the right flank of Grant’s armies.  The day before, his men had defeated the Confederate forces on Lookout Mountain.  Today, they marched to Rossville Gap – delayed having to replace burnt bridges over Chattanooga Creek – where they started a flanking sweep of the Confederate left – Geary’s division moving on the west slope of the Ridge, Charles Cruft’s division moved along the ridge crest and Peter Osterhaus’ division swept the east ridge.

Ireland’s Brigade

Colonel David Ireland led his brigade of four New York regiments – the 80^th, 102, 137^th, and 149^th – along the west slopes linking up with the men of Carlin further to the north.  Ireland’s family emigrated from Scotland when he was eight.  He enlisted with the 79^th New York with the war – he belonged to thar regiment – Cameron Highlanders – before the war when it was part of the New York militia.  James Cameron, the colonel, died in action at First Manassas.  Many of the officers resigned and the men mutinied over the date of their three-month discharge.  That mutiny was put down by General McClellan who took away the regiment’s colors.  Ireland gained command.  Ambushing a group of Confederates near Falls Church, Virginia, the regiment “earned” the colors back. 

Ireland was promoted to captain in the 15^th US Infantry – you already passed their tablet – and he came back to New York in the summer of 1862 to become the colonel of the 137^th New York.  Assigned to the 12^th Corps, their first major combat came at Chancellorsville.  The regiment formed on the far right of the Union army at Gettysburg where they held out on Culp’s Hill losing 30% of the regimental strength.

ireland takes command

Coming west in the brigade of Colonel George Greene, Greene was wounded during the attack at Wauhatchie with Ireland promoted to take his place.  He led the New Yorkers at Lookout Mountain where another similar monument to his brigade stands near the Cravens House.  After helping to sweep up Missionary Ridge, Ireland led his brigade in the Atlanta campaign suffering a wound at Resaca.  Returning to command a month later, he continued to command all the way into Atlanta on 2 September.  Shortly afterwards, he fell sick with dysentery, dying on 10 September. 

lucky in love?

He married Sara Phelps just before coming west on 26 August 1863.  The marriage took place in the Binghamton home of her uncle, Judge Sherman D. Phelps.  The marriage announcement read, “The gallant Col. Ireland, of the 137th Regiment, it will be seen by our marriage column, has been on a recruiting trip to this village. We congratulate him upon his selection of an aide-de-camp, and wish him a smooth and prosperous campaign in the battle of life.” 

Sara married another military man, General Solon D. Hungerford in 1879.  That marriage lasted five years until the general died.  She remarried for a third and final time to William H. H. Gere, a leading engineer on the Eire Canal.  She outlived him, as well, by eleven years.  The New York regiments all have their own monuments on East Culp’s Hill at Gettysburg.

Cobham and Creighton’s Brigades – Cobham

There are two main groupings of monuments left along Crest Road with a few other single ones spread out along the way.  The first grouping is for the 12^th Corps brigade from the brigade of Colonel George Cobham, Jr of Geary’s Division.  He had three Pennsylvanian regiments, 29^th, 109^th and the 111^th.  The 109^th has a monument erected on Orchard Knob while the other two regiments have bronze tablets just south of the monument for Ireland’s New Yorkers.

george cobham

George Cobham, Jr., came with his family from England when he was ten.  A contractor before the war, he became the lieutenant colonel of the 111^th Pennsylvania.  He had a hiatus from July 1862 to October falling sick with typhoid fever.  Promoted to colonel late in the year, he led the regiment at Chancellorsville, then taking brigade command for Gettysburg defending atop Culp’s Hill.  Transferred to the west with the rest of the 12^th Corps, they fought at Wauhatchie where Geary’s Division held off a concerted Confederate attack upon them.  Next came Lookout Mountain where Cobham’s brigade held the highest sides of the mountain as the division swept around the slopes.  Here, on Missionary Ridge, they linked up with men from Johnson’s Division sweeping those remaining Confederates trying to hold their extended left flank, off the crest.

Cobham returned to command the 111^th after the battles here and at Ringgold Gap a few days later.  He returned to brigade command after Ireland was wounded at Resaca, until Ireland returned a month later in June 1864.  Back with the 111^th, he died leading the regiment at Peachtree Creek 20 July.  The tablet explaining the actions of his brigade sits alone another 400 yards to the south along Crest Road.

Cobham and Creighton’s Brigades – creighton

Another 100 yards and you see the tablet dedicated to the actions of Geary’s Division here on the ridge.  Another 300 and there is the tablet for the brigade of Colonel William R. Creighton. Creighton normally commanded the 7^th Ohio, but the brigade lost one commander at Wauhatchie – Major General George Greene – and another – Colonel Charles Candy – on Lookout Mountain.  The 28^th and 147^th Pennsylvania led the way here with the 7^th and 66^th Ohio in the second line. 

There were not many Confederates left to fight by the time they hooked up with Johnson’s men a half mile further north.  7^th, 66^th, and the 76^th Ohio all have tablets together here across the road from a tablet dedicated to the men they were up against, the Georgians of Brigadier General Marcellus Stovall.  This brigade was already overextended on the morning of 25 November when Breckenridge took two regiments away from Stovall to attempt to strengthen his defenses at Rossville Gap. 

Note that the 76^th Ohio was not part of Creighton’s command but that of Brigadier General Charles Woods’ brigade from Peter Osterhaus’ division.  Most of Woods’ brigade were Missourian regiments remembered on the east side of the Bragg Reservation.  All of the regiments of Cobham and Creighton have monuments at Gettysburg.

after missionary ridge

When Creighton left the 7^th Ohio to command the brigade, his place was taken by Lieutenant Colonel Orrin Crane.  Crane died a few days latter in a frontal assault on the ridge to the north of Ringgold Gap.  Creighton tried to reach Crane’s body to bring it down, dying, himself, in the process.  The two, lie side-by-side in Woodland Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

MONUMENTS TO THE MEN OF CRUFT AND OSTERHAUS

With 250 more yards to the south is a little stone marker noting the battery of Company F 2^nd Missouri Light Artillery, one of the three artillery batteries supporting Osterhaus’ Division.  Next to this tablet is one for the Confederate brigade of Henry DeLamar Clayton, a lawyer and politician from Alabama before the war.  He organized both the 1^st and the 39^th Alabama regiments before becoming a brigade commander.  His brigade actually broke through the center of the Federal line on 19 September at Chickamauga.  Lack of reinforcements led to naught.  Clayton was recovering from a wound suffered there and the brigade was under command of Colonel James T. Holtzclaw, another Alabama lawyer.

holtzclaw’s command

Holtzclaw turned down an appointment to West Point to study law in Montgomery.  A member of a local militia unit before the war, Holtzclaw was a lieutenant colonel in the 18^th Alabama by the end of 1861.  At Shiloh, he suffered a serious wound thought to be fatal at the time.  He was back in the field in only ninety days.  By the time of Chickamauga, the tough Alabamian was thrown off his horse.  While injured, he stayed in command.  After the battle here, he went on to permanently command Clayton’s Brigade when Clayton moved up to divisional command.  The brigade here was overextended as the men of Cruft’s division attacked the flank, Johnson’s division their front and Osterhaus’ men came at the rear.  121 men were killed or wounded, but over 700 were marked missing after the battle, most of them captured.

Cruft’s Division

There is a dearth of markers for almost a half mile before the next and last big grouping appears.  Here, on a sharp curve on the north side of Rossville Gap are several tablets of brigades and regiments all mixed.  It is the division of Brigadier General Charles Cruft here.  Charles Cruft was a lawyer and railroad executive before the war.  A civilian onlooker at First Manassas, he returned to Indiana to become the colonel of the 31^st Indiana.  He was wounded at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and then as a new brigadier at the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky.  His brigade was in the action again at Stones River and Chickamauga after which, he gained command at the division level.  He followed along with Sherman to Atlanta, the Sea, and the Carolinas.  After the war, he returned to practice law back in Indiana.

William Grose

The division, following Osterhaus’, penetrated Rossville Gap at 1600.  They then marched along the crest of the ridge with the brigade of Colonel William Grose in the lead and that of brigadier General Walter Whitaker in support.  Grose worked as a lawyer before the war.  Appointed as colonel of the 35^th Indiana with the onset of the war, he suffered a wounded shoulder when shot off his horse at Shiloh.  He moved up to brigade campaign replacing Jacob Ammen managing to get another horse killed at Stones River.  Wounded in the neck at Chickamauga, the brigade performed well here at Lookout Mountains and Missionary Ridge.  He went on to promotion to brigadier general during the Atlanta campaign.  All of Grose’s regiments have monuments at Chickamauga.

24th Ohio

Of Grose’s regiments, only the 24^th Ohio is remembered with a tablet here.  Illinois, which contributed three regiments to the brigade, must have run out of the little granite rectangles.  The 24^th was first commanded by Colonel Jacob Ammen, a West Point graduate of 1831.  Ammen resigned from the army in 1837, turning to teach mathematics until moving to Ohio to work as a civil engineer in 1855.  Commanding a brigade at Shiloh and the Siege of Corinth, he moved to division command when Willam Nelson was killed.  He left the field in early 1863 because of failing health, returning to the field in 1864.

The 24^th was led at Chickamauga by the Reverend Colonel David J. Higgins.  A minister with a projecting voice, he started the war well as a captain.  However, he was already in his forties and suffered from arthritis, a condition worsened by living in the field.  Hepatitis and nephritis put him out of the field for several months while the regiment marched with the Army of the Cumberland losing several upper-level officers at Stones River.  Against the advice of his doctor, Higgins returned to the 24^th on 14 January 1863. 

unfit for duty

Grose found Higgins unfit for duty and assigned him to lighter duties.  But he was recalled again during the Chickamauga campaign.  Arthritis caused the Reverend to turn over command of the 24^th to Major Thomas McClure on the morning of 20 September.  The brigade was routed on the left end and Grose dismissed both McClure and Higgins for cowardice.   Higgins, through a military court of inquiry, had his dismissal reversed, the court accepting his reason for turning over his command not due to cowardice but ill health.  He did resign his commission due to his health, which Grose immediately accepted.

Returning home, newspapers already reported his dismissal for cowardice.  A flagging reputation, he moved his family to Minnesota resuming his role as a minister.  Eventually, he moved to Pasadena where he died at ninety-nine.  At the ripe age of 74, he applied for a pension but was given one for the rank of captain only since he had not served as a colonel for over a year.  For his headstone, however, he was given his highest rank gaining back a little respect in death.

Walter Whitaker

Working as a lawyer, Walter C. Whitaker enlisted for service as a lieutenant with the 6^th Kentucky during the Mexican American War.  Returning to Kentucky, he practiced law and ran a large farm.  As a legislator in the Kentucky General Assembly, he offered the resolution to keep Kentucky in the Union.  With the Civil War, he rejoined the 6^th Kentucky as its colonel.  Defending at the Round Forest on 31 December 1862 at Stones River, Whitaker was wounded in the left elbow.  Promoted to brigadier general, he led one of Gordon Granger’s two brigades at Chickamauga where he was wounded again.

One problem Whitaker had – probably shared with fellow Kentuckian John Breckinridge – was he enjoyed his whiskey too much.  He was reportedly drunk at Lookout Mountain and some said here at Missionary Ridge, too.  He went on to command his brigade in the Atlanta campaign concussed by an artillery round going off near him at Resaca.  That put him out of action until the fall when he returned and gained divisional command.  Postwar, he returned to the law spending time in a mental asylum for alcoholism.

All three of the Ohio regiments have tablets here on the curve – 40^th, 51^st, and 99^th.  All of his regiments have monuments at Chickamauga except for the 8^th Kentucky which is included on the Kentucky State Monument there.

The Rest of the Story – peter Osterhaus

South Crest Road makes a big curve before splitting into two with a West Crest and South Crest Road.  Just before the split is a tablet dedicated to the division of Peter Osterhaus.  Osterhaus grew up in Koblenz, Rhenish Prussia.  He served as a Prussian officer until he decided to join the wrong side during the German Revolution of 1848-1849.  Ending up in St. Louis by 1860, he took part in training German American militias.  With the onset of the Civil War, he became a major in the 2^nd Missouri under Franz Sigel.  After the loss at Wilson’s Creek, he became the colonel of the 12^th Missouri.  Following his success at the Battle of Pea Ridge 7-8 March 1862, he gained promotion to brigadier general.

Convalescing from malaria contracted on the march, he went on to led troops against Arkansas Post and later Vicksburg where he suffered a wound to his thigh.  A division commander here, he served on through Atlanta, on then farther with Sherman – a corps commander during the March to the Sea – as a major general.  In early 1865, he was made chief of staff for Major General Edward Canby operating against Mobile, Alabama which fell April 1865.  Osterhaus served as Canby’s representative as Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the last Confederate troops of the war.

osterhaus postwar

After the war, he returned to Europe first as US Counsel in Lyon, France.  Back in Germany, he gained citizenship in Baden in 1879.  Returning to the US in 1904, he dined with President Thoedore Roosevelt gaining a slot on the retired list as a regular army brigadier general – ten years later promoted to major general.  He died in Germany in 1917 a couple years before the US joined World War 1 against Germany.  His two brigades have most of their tablets at the Bragg Reservation – the brigade of Charles Woods’ mostly Missourian with an Illinois and Ohio regiment thrown in for good measure.

More Missouri

Next to the tablet for the division, at the split in the Crest Roads, is another rectangular monument remembering the Missourians fighting in this area – 3^rd, 12^th, 17^th, 27^th, 29^th, 31^st and 32^nd along with Battery F 2^nd Missouri artillery – all units of Woods’ brigade.

IOWA

At Rossville Gap is another of the three Iowa State Monuments.  This is for the six Iowan regiments working with the brigade of Colonel James A. Williamson.  Williamson came up with the 4^th Iowa.  Wounded at the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, he eventually gained a Medal of Honor for his services there in 1895.  He took part in the Siege of Vicksburg being promoted to brigade command by the time of the Chattanooga campaign. Williamson went on to led his brigade through the Atlanta campaign where was wounded at the Battle of Jonesborough.  He gained a promotion to brigadier general in January 1865 with a brevet to major general.  He later returned to a law practice the war interrupted and later became president of a railroad.

The Iowan regiments remembered her are the 4^th. 9^th, 25^th. 26^th. 30^th, and 31^st.